Low end Torque

[Hahnsb2]

+1

if you still think its a dog after 4.10's get a diesel because no gas engine is going to please you.

the 4.0 is one of the lowest revving engines ford makes, theres not much you can do to move the torque band down even further.

personally, if you dont know how to drive a stick (and its obvious you dont if your lugging around at 1,000 RPM) then get an automatic.

What he said. Let it rev if it needs to, damn people trying to baby everything, you wont hurt it.

 

[Little Red]

Guy's, RPM is a part wearer.Speed kills. How do you think I got 221k with no smoke,noise,leaks or other bad things. Take care of it and It will take care of you.Run the balls off your trucks if you want to. I do the work,pay for the parts and pay for my gas so I'll baby my truck if you please. I'm not 25(more than double that) and full of piss and vinegar no more and I don't like to wrench no more either. Thanks for your replys. I guess this dog won't hunt.

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

LOTS of people have over 200K miles on these engines with no major work done. thats not your driving, thats modern engineering. my escort has 230k on it and it sees over 5 grand regularly.

you "old guys" crack me up when you get so stuck in your ways. i guess us younger generation should appriciate being able to absorb all the collective information thats out there while we're still young...before our minds close and we "know" we're right.

enjoy your lack of power, less-than-peak fuel economy, additional cooling system strain, carbon fouling, etc

 

[Little Red]

Tell me that when you grow up!

 

[turbo cat]

gears will multiply torque without actually increasing the motors out put.if you want to increase the torque of the motor to have more power and still have the same economy you will have to break into the motor. Staying NA your kinda limited with the 4.0. Like said above the 4.0 is a torque motor not a high reving race motor. improving the intake setup (filter to the intake ports) will do nothing for you as the stock equip is well equipt for torque and if any thing was swapped or ported you would probally lose low rpm torque. A very mild RV style cam could net you a few pounds of torque while keeping the current fuel economy, Long tube headers and a single 2 1/2" exhaust would be nice and also add a SCT x calibrator 2 to fin tune the ecu. Then theres boost that is another story that Im pretty sure you dont want to go into. It comes at way more $$$$$ and you will probally have to turn some wrenches. not to mention the parasitic drag of a roots blower that robs some fuel economy even when not in boost, the centifugal blower that dosent create boost until higher revs and a turbo that can spool quick (dep on size) and leave you with great fuel economy under normal driving conditions however has the expence of higher exhaust tempatures wearing out parts faster....

So mild cam and some long tubes and a SCT or get a new truck

I know how you feel my 4.0 is hauling more weight (explorer) 4x4 manual rolling on 31s. The explorer was a dog even dow nlow for me. Hills were horrible, passing impossible...
i went the route of bolting a tiny T3 16$ turbo now it feels (and sounds) like a diesel. if i need to pass in a limited time I lay my foot down and go for it not worrying about not having enough time. The turbo is sized for a 2 liter four cylinder in which now on the 4.0 it spools to full boost before max torque maing it a torquey little suv. once iahve the fuel and tuning sorted out its going to be a fun truck. Another 4.0 turbo (full stock motor minus a mild cam) put down 320 hp and 380 ft lbs of torque at 14 psi. My turbo has already pushed 15 psi before 2500 rpm once the fuel and tuning issues are sorted i can only imagine the torque this thing will put down. heck it already screams when i turned the boost up to 15psi but was shortly interupted by runnng out of fuel and rattled forcing me lift

 

[AllanD]

LOTS of people have over 200K miles on these engines with no major work done. thats not your driving, thats modern engineering. my escort has 230k on it and it sees over 5 grand regularly.

you "old guys" crack me up when you get so stuck in your ways. i guess us younger generation should appriciate being able to absorb all the collective information thats out there while we're still young...before our minds close and we "know" we're right.

enjoy your lack of power, less-than-peak fuel economy, additional cooling system strain, carbon fouling, etc

IT's not nearly as much about us "old guys" as much as it is you young guys who haven't LEARNED anything and ASSume that us "old guys" didn't try all the same CRAP that you think of as "new".
Your comments about "old guys" has gone beyond
"beginning to irritate me", I may be older than you
but trust me you don't know me and you have no idea
how crazy I really am.

While an Escort engine is designed to rev a 4.0OHV is NOT
However revving alone isn't necissarily "Bad" revving under
full load definatly is

witness the fact that ford switched to a completely different rotating/reciprocating assembly in mid 1997 in the OHV engine.
They did this because they wanted to make ONE rotating/recip
assembly for both versions (OHV and OHC) of the engine

But major RE-engineering of the bottom end was required to make
the 4.0 assembly into a "revvy" engine.

Rev a 4.0 to 5000rpm regularly and you'll kill it in less than a year.

But then again if you don't rev a 4.0 to ~4grand WOT
a couple of times a week you'll carbon it up and have
"pinging" issues.

FORD says to do this to a 4.0.

Revving an escort engine to 5grand? It's a "so What"

DO NOT rev a SHO engine to 5grand? You might as well not even have it.

Rev my steel crank, Mahle pistoned Saab turbo engine? 5grand for
as long as you can get gas to run it. 6grand? same statement.

Revving my Boss351 to 6500rpm? (or 7000rpm for that matter)
Revving my 340-4bbl to 6800? another "so what"

I've had several small block engines, Chevy, Dodge and Ford
that would turn in the high 6-grand to 7grand range for a long time...
But then again they were built to do exactly that
But they were most emphatically NOT production normal engines.


If a 4.0 is being complained about as having "no bottom end"?
It's a gearing issue.

ANY engine is "gutless" with gears that are too tall.

I have 4.10's in my 4.0 Ranger (with 235/75-15's) and 4.10's
are simply too much.
I find 4.10's too limiting on my highway cruising speed

Even on my '93 4.0 exhaling through borla headers
and an open exhaust

The 4.0OHV gets very "piggy" about 2400-2500rpm
in highway cruise.
That rpm with my gearing gets me to just short of 70mph
and 70mph simply doesn't cut it across Iowa and Nebraska
(even doing 75 across Nebraska on I-80 will leave you rocking in the wake of everyone who passes you)

From what I've seen Nebraska isn't too big on speed
enforcement provided you keep it under 85.

Before my next run to Wyoming I AM regearing my Ranger to 3.73's
Hell I might be doing the job on the rear axle today if it weren't raining.

AD

 

[rangerT]

Ahhh.... No.

Everyone imagine what I REALLY want to say here....

AD

^^^^^^^please tell...... why wouldn't work????....and yes it would help

 

[AllanD]

^^^^^^^please tell...... why wouldn't work????....and yes it would help

No it wouldn't work, the throttle body is no larger on a 4.0SOHC
that makes more power and torque than the 4.0OHV

The ASSumption (please note emphasis) that a bigger throttle body will flow more air and this make more power or torque is a product of a FALSE idea that the stock 4.0 Throttle body is the restriction in the system.

The guys that tell you that a bigger throttle body have a "conflict of interest"
because they make and sell bigger TB's and if they told you they didn't work they'd have to find an honest way to make a living.


The simple objective reality is that none of the relatively cheap
bolt-ons do a damned thing except to make your truck faster
via lightening the wallet of the driver.

The issue here is one of insufficient torque AT-THE-WHEELS
and THE quickest ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEED way to increase
the torque at the wheels is changing the gears

a simple gearing change though generally not a D-I-Y thing
for the average truck owner is quite simply mathamatically
guaranteed to work.

if the OP has 3.27's now then the gearing below will
increase torque at-the-wheels by the following amounts:
3.55 by 8.56%
3.73 by 14.1%
4.10 by 25.4%

These are not theoretical "Lets pull a number out my ass"
or claims by an aftermarket doo-dad supplier.
These figuires are cold hard reality that cannot be wrong.

My thought about 4.10's is that they are about ideal for a mainly
street an highway driven truck IF you are running 31x10.5's
However if you intend to stick with 235/75-15's go for 3.73's

My 4.10's are a remnant of when I ran a 2.9 in my truck and
a 2.9 on 235's was perfectly happy at th engine rpm required
for a 75-80mph cruising speed, the 4.0 engine isn't.

Gears WILL work.

most aftermarket crap doesn't, that's why it's "Crap"

Hey mabey my headers don't do much, but if nothing else
the pair of headers weighs about half what one of the cast
manifolds did...

Fortunatly I practically "Stole" my headers by sniping them off
ebay. (My total cost was $43) instead of paying $550-$600
that they used to sell for.

But the one certain thing is that the headers can't hurt.

AD

 

[Hahnsb2]

While an Escort engine is designed to rev a 4.0OHV is NOT
However revving alone isn't necissarily "Bad" revving under
full load definatly is

But major RE-engineering of the bottom end was required to make
the 4.0 assembly into a "revvy" engine.

Rev a 4.0 to 5000rpm regularly and you'll kill it in less than a year.

But then again if you don't rev a 4.0 to ~4grand WOT
a couple of times a week you'll carbon it up and have
"pinging" issues.

Never told him to rev it to 5k, simply saying most people are afraid to let their trucks rev over 2500-3000 RPMs, they're babying it and it isn't necessary. Need more torque? Shift down, simple concept.

 

[289-tiger-]

What's a good way to bring up the low end torque(2500 rpm and below) of my 4.0? That's where I do 95% of my driving and it's a dog. I know that my 3.27 gears don't help and I run empty 99 and 44/100% of the time but I'm tired of the down shifting,upshifting in the hills of Western Pa. etc.plus when I'm in town, just when I get going something comes up like a stop sign, red light and I have to start all over again to get up to speed. It's 100% stock, 97
super cab, 4x4,5 spd auto. No codes.

Buy a F150

Good luck

 

[289-tiger-]

LOTS of people have over 200K miles on these engines with no major work done. thats not your driving, thats modern engineering. my escort has 230k on it and it sees over 5 grand regularly.

you "old guys" crack me up when you get so stuck in your ways. i guess us younger generation should appriciate being able to absorb all the collective information thats out there while we're still young...before our minds close and we "know" we're right.

enjoy your lack of power, less-than-peak fuel economy, additional cooling system strain, carbon fouling, etc

Excuse me, as a former escort owner over 200k, engineering had nothing to do with the mileage, ownership and maintainence did.

Take my advice...Listen to the old guys.

 

[bmxryder]

i would say either re-gear, get smaller tires, fill up your tires (sounds silly but sometimes you dont notice your tires are low by looking at them), or just go cheap and just push the pedal alittle further. my 4.0 has 190,xxx miles on it and ive had it for about a year now. i put the pedal on the floor quit often and i havent noticed any motor problems at all. as long as you manage your truck regulerly with oil changes (with good oil), clean air filter, all that good stuff you will be fine.

 

[rangerT]

No it wouldn't work, the throttle body is no larger on a 4.0SOHC
that makes more power and torque than the 4.0OHV

The ASSumption (please note emphasis) that a bigger throttle body will flow more air and this make more power or torque is a product of a FALSE idea that the stock 4.0 Throttle body is the restriction in the system.

The guys that tell you that a bigger throttle body have a "conflict of interest"
because they make and sell bigger TB's and if they told you they didn't work they'd have to find an honest way to make a living.


The simple objective reality is that none of the relatively cheap
bolt-ons do a damned thing except to make your truck faster
via lightening the wallet of the driver.

The issue here is one of insufficient torque AT-THE-WHEELS
and THE quickest ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEED way to increase
the torque at the wheels is changing the gears

a simple gearing change though generally not a D-I-Y thing
for the average truck owner is quite simply mathamatically
guaranteed to work.

if the OP has 3.27's now then the gearing below will
increase torque at-the-wheels by the following amounts:
3.55 by 8.56%
3.73 by 14.1%
4.10 by 25.4%

These are not theoretical "Lets pull a number out my ass"
or claims by an aftermarket doo-dad supplier.
These figuires are cold hard reality that cannot be wrong.

My thought about 4.10's is that they are about ideal for a mainly
street an highway driven truck IF you are running 31x10.5's
However if you intend to stick with 235/75-15's go for 3.73's

My 4.10's are a remnant of when I ran a 2.9 in my truck and
a 2.9 on 235's was perfectly happy at th engine rpm required
for a 75-80mph cruising speed, the 4.0 engine isn't.

Gears WILL work.

most aftermarket crap doesn't, that's why it's "Crap"

Hey mabey my headers don't do much, but if nothing else
the pair of headers weighs about half what one of the cast
manifolds did...

Fortunatly I practically "Stole" my headers by sniping them off
ebay. (My total cost was $43) instead of paying $550-$600
that they used to sell for.

But the one certain thing is that the headers can't hurt.

AD

ya ok.....sure sounds like you like to hear yourself talk.he was asking for options and advice so it is up to him to what he wants to do after hearing all of us.sounds funny that all these manufactors would make TB that do nothing,or so you ASSume(please note emphasis,hehehe).....hmmmm.....you sound like you know your stuff(although you don't know everything) but i think that i will also put some faith in the pros too.....IMHO.....

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

Excuse me, as a former escort owner over 200k, engineering had nothing to do with the mileage, ownership and maintainence did.

Take my advice...Listen to the old guys.

so your saying a poorly engineered engine (lets say, an older 3.8) will last just as long as a well engineered engine as long as you keep the oil changed...im sorry, but no.

proper maintainence is important, but modern engineering has a lot to do with engines lasting as long as they do these days. 100 years ago, 100,000 miles would be an amazing feat. today its a very regular occurence, and 200,000 miles is becoming more and more common. engines are designed with closer tolerances, computers that can "wear" an engine in seconds rather than years, giving engineers an idea of what needs to be improved, material quality has improved and computer guided mills are thousands of times more accurate, oiling systems have improved.....i could go on.

my point was that RPM under the readline has very little effect on the overall life of an engine. if my little 1.9 can rev to 5 grand regularly and still be well on its way to 300,000 miles, a 4.0 can rev to 4,000 rpm (almost peak hp, by the way) and not be harmed. thinking that reving an engine to its peak HP RPM is any way "bad" for it is nothing short of uninformed.

 

[289-tiger-]

so your saying a poorly engineered engine (lets say, an older 3.8) will last just as long as a well engineered engine as long as you keep the oil changed...im sorry, but no.

proper maintainence is important, but modern engineering has a lot to do with engines lasting as long as they do these days. 100 years ago, 100,000 miles would be an amazing feat. today its a very regular occurence, and 200,000 miles is becoming more and more common. engines are designed with closer tolerances, computers that can "wear" an engine in seconds rather than years, giving engineers an idea of what needs to be improved, material quality has improved and computer guided mills are thousands of times more accurate, oiling systems have improved.....i could go on.

my point was that RPM under the readline has very little effect on the overall life of an engine. if my little 1.9 can rev to 5 grand regularly and still be well on its way to 300,000 miles, a 4.0 can rev to 4,000 rpm (almost peak hp, by the way) and not be harmed. thinking that reving an engine to its peak HP RPM is any way "bad" for it is nothing short of uninformed.

I've seen quite a few of owners driving their well engineered vehicles of all makes blowing smoke at very low mileage by either their right foot or their lack of maintenance of the vehicle. I've also seen poorly designed 3 main bearing engines still operating after 50 years of operation thanks to it owner. (He was an "old guy")

Good luck